Goldberg and Podhoretz Still Don’t Get It

Last night, journalist Jill Carroll issued a statement. Here’s is an excerpt:

I also gave a TV interview to the Iraqi Islamic Party shortly after my release. The party had promised me the interview would never be aired on television, and broke their word. At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely…

I want to be judged as a journalist, not as a hostage. I remain as committed as ever to fairness and accuracy–to discovering the truth–and so I will not engage in polemics. But let me be clear: I abhor all who kidnap and murder civilians, and my captors are clearly guilty of both crimes.

Now Goldberg and Podhoretz think I should apologize to them for criticizing their remarks. I will not. (Podhoretz claims that my earlier call for him to apologize – which I stand by – damages “civil discourse.” Goldberg, to his credit, apologizes for suggesting she was a terrorist sympathizer.) The attacks on her mental state and her character were completely unjustified. Carroll’s statement only underscores that.

JUDD LEGUM… [JPod]
…of ThinkProgress is, basically, unbelievably dishonest. He writes the following: “Podhoretz… suggested that [Jill] Carroll was suffering from a mental disorder.” I never suggested any such thing. I said, correctly, that people would might think she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome — which is not a mental disorder in any case, but a form of post-traumatic stress.

What’s incredibly dishonest is Podhoretz pretending, after it’s fairly clear the interview televised after her release was not evidence of Stockholm Syndrome, that his statement was purely about what other people might suggest.